29 April 2018

Dear Amy - Helen Callaghan


Rating: ✫✫✫

Well, it's been a little while since I've had the time to sit down and write a review of any books I've read (truth be told, it's been a while since I've had the time to sit down and read any books, much to my horror). But I'm back. 

I started reading Dear, Amy purely by chance. I was out and about and found myself with an hour or so to kill, and found this in the local library. I knew I had it at home, so started reading. Psychological thrillers have saturated the market recently, so it's difficult to find one that stands out. This one was good, but I'm not sure it was the greatest I've read. Admittedly this may largely be my own fault. I've been so busy with work that I haven't really had the time to commit to the story. I found myself reading it in small chunks, with long delays between them. I imagine that I would have enjoyed it slightly more if I had read it all in one go. 

Let me start by saying that I loved the idea behind the book. The way Margot receives letters to her column makes for a really imaginative way of telling a story that is not necessarily original, and I thought immediately that the plot had a lot of mileage. I was excited to see which direction the story went in. However, I found that our main character was a bit of a pain. She's nice enough, but I found her very difficult to really like, and so I wasn't as invested in the book as I normally would be. That being said, the twist in the story is very good, and I didn't see it coming. I just wish I could have experienced that shock that I would have felt if I was a little more into the book as a whole. 


Dear Amy,

I've been kidnapped by a strange man.
I don't know where I am.

Please help me.
Bethan Avery


When Margot Lewis receives this letter delivered to the newspaper where she is a part-time agony aunt called 'Amy', she assumes it must be a hoax. Bethan Avery went missing twenty years ago, so why would she suddenly be receiving these letters now? But Margot also works in a school, where a girl has been missing for only a few weeks. 

As more letters arrive, Margot realises that she can't ignore them. But as the circumstances become increasingly sinister, Margot is also forced to confront her own, troubled past, putting herself in the heart of the case, and right in front of a dangerous criminal.

*spoiler alert*

10 April 2018

Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie


'"The finest system in the world can make a mistake...
Justice is, after all, in the hands of men, and men are fallible."'

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫

I've had Ordeal by Innocence sat on the shelf for a long time, and, with the television adaptation now being shown, it seemed the perfect time to read it. I'm glad I actually read the book before watching the adaptation, because there were a lot of changes that I wasn't too pleased by. Although I appreciate that they want to play on the drama of crime fiction, I just find that they're often over-dramatized, which takes away from the charm and overall feel of Christie's novels. And that's precisely why I always choose to read the book first. But I digress. This review will be looking only at Christie's novel.

Arthur Calgary is on his way to Sunny Point, a house known as Viper's Point to the locals. Calgary has discovered that he could have provided an alibi to a man two years before, which could have saved him from being sent to prison for the murder of his mother. The accused, Jack Argyle, died in prison during his sentence, but Calgary feels that he must contact the family, who he imagines will be pleased to know that Jack did not commit the crime. But when he gets there, he finds that the family are less than receptive to his news. Confused as to why, Calgary struggles to remove himself from the case. He soon realises that what he has done does not just put the real culprit back in danger, but it also puts the innocent through another, more dangerous ordeal.

I often find that without one central character to hold a mystery together, it sometimes doesn't feel like one coherent plot. I imagine that's why so many authors choose to create detectives, who can interact with the suspects and pull the reader in the desired direction. Although Arthur Calgary kind of picks up this central role, he is absent for most of the action, but I don't think the plot suffers at all because of this. There are so many characters and so many plot details to remember that the overall novel could easily fall into too many different pieces. But Christie intertwines all the clues together so that, if anything, everything comes together perfectly, and makes for a really intriguing and dynamic ending.

*spoiler alert*